Qalaa Holdings, one of Egypt's largest investment companies, announced Monday it mandated investment bank CI Capital to advise on the possibility of divesting its whole stake in microfinance leader Tanmeyah. Qalaa owns 70% stake in Tanmeyah for Micro Enterprise Services. In mid-2014, Qalaa raised its stake in Tanmeyah from 51% to 70%. The divestiture step aims to providing adequate liquidity to buy treasury stocks, provided the market conditions, Qalaa said in a bourse statement. Qalaa believes that the returns on treasury stocks may outperform the returns from any other investments in the meantime. Earlier, Qalaa said it hired EFG-Hermes to advise on exiting its full investments in Dina Farms and Rashidi El-Mizan. The divestiture operations will accelerate the deleveraging of the company and will provide the funds required for any potential growth opportunities in its core business, noted Qalaa. Meanwhile, Qalaa said it expects to generate $300 million in proceeds from exits in the medium term.
